September 11th

It's been eight years, but I remember exactly where I was.
I was 14, a sophomore in high school, and was sick that day. As the rest of my family packed up and left for school, I sat on the couch watching again and again the only footage they had so far: smoking, crumbling buildings, people jumping from floors high above the ground, reporters running away and hiding behind cars as the towers imploded.

As I was sitting in front of my class at Circle Time this morning, I thought about mentioning it before we said the Pledge of Allegiance. Then I realized that not a single one of them was alive that day. In their little five and six year old lives, do they even know about it yet? My heart was heavy today with remembering. They were lighthearted and giddy because it was Friday. What a strange difference.

Wondering what my feelings were 8 years ago, I just pulled from my bookshelf the journal I kept in 2001. Here is an entry from the day after our lives changed.

Wednesday, September 12th, 2001
Our country is under attack. Yesterday, America was invaded by terrorists, and thousands of innocent lives were lost...I saw the entire thing on the news yesterday, and I just couldn't believe it.

I watched as the second plane crashed into the tower and blew up. The whole building caught fire. People were running as fast as they could, trying to escape. Others jumped from the building. It was the most horrifying thing that I have ever seen.

Then, the tower crumbled. All 110 floors of it came crashing down, along with the several thousand people who were captured in the flames. It was a scene that I will never forget.

There is a cloud hanging over New York City. A cloud of smoke and debris. It is a reminder to all of us how hateful we can be. Don't the people that did this to us realize what they have done? Don't they realize that they have killed thousands of innocent people? I don't understand how they could be so hateful, whoever they are.

Thousands of people were killed yesterday. Thousands of moms, dads, brothers, sisters, and grandparents. Thousands of people who won't be coming home tonight, and why? Because there is hatred, and sin, and they were the victims of it.

I don't understand at all.

An Airforce general said that this was worse than Pearl Harbor, and that it is the beginning of another war. Will this start World War III?

Right now, I'm in my mom's classroom. I can hear the music students downstairs singing the Star Spangled Banner. Their sweet voices fill the room patriotically.

We are proud to be Americans. God bless America!

Bethany Elise, 2001